Selwyn Blieden

Selwyn manages a portfolio of investments for RMB Westport, a real estate private equity fund operating in sub-Saharan Africa. In this role he has served as a director of several project and investment companies in Nigeria, Ghana and Mauritius. RMB Westport is part of the FirstRand group, one of the largest banking and investment groups in Africa. Selwyn has worked in Rand Merchant Bank, the investment banking division of the FirstRand group, since 2004. Before taking on his current role, he co-founded and managed Rand Merchant Bank’s Opportunities in Global Real Estate business, investing into property assets in multiple jurisdiction including Japan, Germany and Eastern Europe.

Prior to joining the FirstRand group, Selwyn was a consultant in the Johannesburg office of McKinsey & Company. There he served clients in multiple African jurisdictions and worked alongside several of the founders of African Leadership Academy.

Before entering commercial life, Selwyn was a member of the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and a Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge.

Selwyn has a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge. He won an Emanuel Bradlow Scholarship to attend St John’s College, Cambridge

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